Goodman Games

Good evening all. It appears that I am about to join an august group of people who have decided to run Castle Whiterock. I must say, reading the posts here have given me many ideas for how to run my campaign. First though, a little background information.

Honestly, I have only been DMing for a couple months. However, the DDCs are so easy to use, I don't feel handicapped by not knowing everything intuitively. As such, I have gathered together five players who are gearing up to assault the Castle on March 29th.

As of today, our party looks like this:
Warforged Fighter
Elven Warmage
Human Fighter
*something* cleric
*unknown* (can't make up his mind)

I want to get a sixth player, and since our monthly D&D session is this coming Saturday, I am sure I can get someone. We are going to game two Saturdays a month for about 4 hours. Four of the five players I have so far are experienced players who have been gaming for over a decade. They are very supportive in my plans to run this campaign, and they are itching to get started.

Hearing how bad some parties had it, I let them use a 32 point build with 200GP starting allowance. I made the campaign "realms nuetral" with the only rule being no evil characters. I have access to a large (6'x8') grid map and have printed out the maps on 11x17 paper to facilitate drawing them out.

My plan is to have them start out by walking to the city and finding a dying messenger on the side of the road. He will pass on a document, asking them to deliver it to the head of the watch in Cillimar. I plan to have the commander assign them to search for slavers in the area, and ask the locals if they have seen anything. After years of playing Living Greyhawk and Living Kalamar, my players like a good story chase. I also plan to mke then think that the Lady of the Drake might be involved with the slavers too. I am still writing up the conversations I want to use, but so far everything is falling into place nicely.

My only concern for mapping has been handled by one of the players. He is going to take a picture of the state of the map at the end of each session and print it out for their records. Also, I want to thank those that made up the player version of the city map, as it will help out a lot.

With luck, I will have good news to report in two weeks!!

Sounds really promising, Jason. Best of luck! I'm eager to hear how the first session goes!

--Ken

Well, everything is ready for us to begin on Saturday. I have my 6 players and (for now) it looks like the following:

Warforged Fighter
Elf Warmage
Human Fighter
Gnome Rogue (may change by Saturday)
Human Artificer (may change by Saturday)
Orc Cleric (may change by Saturday)

It's really hard for a few of them to decide what they want to run for a long campaign, but I am not worried.

I have typed up about 4 pages (large font) of introduction. This will have them finding the dead messenger, taking said message to Lady Woden, accepting the task of finding the slavers, and sending them to the Inn of the Slumbering Drake. I still plan to make the Lady Chauntessa very mysterious to them. I also have a good speech ready for the drunk. St. Patricks day at a local Irish bar gave me quite a bit of research on drunken ramblings!

I have also taken the liberty of making small certificates for all masterwork or magical items, scrolls & potions that they might find on the first level. Being longtime RPGA players, they love certs! I also picked up some cheap tan paper, to give them a bit of a parchment look. I also grabbed the players map on this forum and retyped the major names on it. I will let the players fill it in with any additional information they wish.

I will admit the 32 point build I lent them may cause me problems down the road. However, I already have at least one nasty trick in mind. Once they hit level 3, I will have one of the local priests approach them in town to help clear out the "Devil worshiper's" church. Sorry, I don't have the mod in front of me to grab the name. I am going to stuff the lower levels of the church with some tasty morsels from the Fiend Folio, and have them trapse through the sewers to the noble famiyl's house that was abandoned. This is going to be very grueling for them, and might knock them down a peg or two. Also, if that doesn't work, sometime they will be sent to the Necropolis of the old Castle to put down a Wight infestation. If I do the Castle, I might have an old mage come back as a lich, but I haven't decided yet.

One stroke of luck for me was finding a turtle sculpture that is the perfect size for the Lake Monster. I will start dropping hints about it when they hit level 4, until I feel they are ready for it.

All of them are excited to begin the campaign. I have laid my hands on a giant Chessex mat, which will make exploration so much easier. Wish me luck, and I'll post Sunday how things went.

A prepared GM is a blessing to his table, and you, sir, sound prepared!

DEFINITELY let us know how it goes!

Castle Whiterock session #1
03/29/08 12:00 to 16:20

The Party:
Cora Nightwing – Whisper Gnome Rogue
Clank – Warforged Fighter
Charles D. Tancer – Half-orc Barbarian
Tiffen – Elf Warmage
Binder – Warforged Artificer
Jenso – Human Cleric

All PCs were 32 point build with 200GP starting equipment.

They players met on a dark and stormy night, huddled under a cliff to keep out of the elements. A dying messenger stumbled into their camp, passing on a note to be delivered to Lady Woden. Following some improvisation involving galloping horses in the darkness and a half-orc barbarian lost in the woods, the party settled in for the night. At dawn they broke for Cillimar, arriving just before noon. The guards were very helpful by escorting them to Lady Woden, who assigned them the task of eliminating the slavers. For the next 20 minutes we had some good role-playing in the Inn of the Slumbering Drake. Everyone was impressed with how much information I had at my fingertips. Cora decided it would be fun to sit in Cookie’s chair, until one of the serving girls whacked her with a tray and told her to get down. Cora plans on coming back for darts & gambling, two items that impressed the players. The undertaker suggested they contact the monks at the site, explaining he did *special burial work* for them. At this point the party, headed off for the castle, assuming they were normal monks.

The players offered no suspicion to the monks they met, so I was able to lead them to the tents and set up the ambush. Right before I sprung the trap, Cora followed the last two “monks” out of the tent just as it collapsed. Our Rogue was feeling rather cocky that she had evaded the trap, until she saw the slavers waiting for her with raised staff and a huge figure running from the courtyard. At this point I started to have my doubts as to whether the artificer was going to break the game. Casting Bane on Humans on Clank’s weapon pretty much ensured one-hit kills. However, by the time the rest of the party had dug themselves out of the tent trap, Cora lay unconscious on the ground, and the enlarged Half-orc was halfway to the tent. Clank was reduced to 0 hp, and the barbarian had taken a few hits before the slavers were taken down. I revealed the first player handout, and everyone commented on the subtlety of their tattoos. A last minute attempt to capture one of the slavers for questioning turned comical. A Warforged should not try to use his flail for this task. A critical hit pretty much crushed his little head, leaving the team with a bloody mess and no answers.

The party backtracked to the stables, and discovered one of the slavers tending the horses. Knowing people who raise horses, you can be in your own little world while working on the animals. After sneaking up and subduing him, they locked him into one of the slave carts and began the interrogation. Gnomes should never try to intimidate someone, but two Warforged and a half-orc barbarian cracking their knuckles in the background can loosen most tongues, not to mention their bladders. The slaver told them about most of the layout, and said the slaves were sent down below. At this point the party left him with some rations in front of him in the cart and decided to explore the area outside of the keep.

An exploration of the monastery ruins led to an encounter with the centipedes. Fortuitously, I had just pulled 4 centipede minis from the new D&D set that morning. Everyone was shocked when the barbarian was hit and poisoned by one of them, a first for many of the characters. They started treating all encounters a little more seriously at this point, as the Half-orc lost two dexterity. Later on he lost another point before the poison took its course.

At this point let me say that I rarely saw a search or spot check of less than 23 when looking for treasure or secret doors. Checks for locating monsters, however, were not as good.

When they reached the fallen tower, Cora and Binder went inside to investigate while the others waited outside. I decided to liven things up by having a Blood Hawk attack the outside party members while the giant preying mantis attacked the two inside the tower. I was as shocked as everyone else when Charles charged into the tower and squished the giant bug in one stroke! The blood hawk was dispatched easily, and the players rejoiced.

After finding the monks’ secret chamber and the path up the mountains, they decided to clear out the keep before heading up to the tower. At this point I figured the slavers knew something was up, and had the survivors retreat to the boss’ living quarters. The party took their time exploring the other rooms, pausing to have the Warforged attack the hornet nest for some easy XP. Cora decided to climb down into the rubble pit and search around. Upon rolling a natural 20, I announced that they had found the communal privy. As the gnome was pulled out, the half-orc commented “Mmm, you smell like home”, to much laughter.

Let me say that with two Warforged in the party, and everyone wearing some kind of metal armor, you just can’t sneak around. If not for the silence granted to the whisper gnomes, our rogue would not be as effective as she turned out to be. Cora neglected to use this while searching and listening at the last door. Only a high reflex save prevented her from being damaged from the fist punching through the door to the slaver’s chief’s quarters. This scared the crap out of the party, and they prepared for a nasty battle. The evil monk and surviving slavers poured out to give battle. Once again, Charles charged forward and in one blow removed their main opponent. The evil monk was evil paste. The remaining slavers were dispatched with aplomb and they began to search the room. High search values led them to everything, including the secret door. They could not decipher the journals, but took them with them for evidence, and decided to pay the undertaker a visit when they got back to town. At this point I regretted not having the undertaker ambush them on the way to the castle, but I had a better idea in mind.

Exploring though the secret door, Cora and Binder began sifting through the rubble. The heavy thud as I laid down an owlbear mini was echoed by the “Oh $%^^!!” of all the players. Cora tumbled back out of the way, and Binder took a claw and bite from the owlbear skeleton. Clank charged up to attack, but slipped on the rubble and fell on his shiny metal a$$. Charles walked up, took a swing and missed. Binder cast “bane undead” on the barbarians greatsword and he shattered the owlbear with a critical hit. They players finished exploring the rooms, finding their way to the second level. This was around 15:30, so they decided to backtrack and head up the cliff to the tower. Since the secret door to the hidden room isn’t shown on the map, I decided it was in the short hallway, the one room they neglected to search.

What followed next was the highlight of the day. Cora climbed up the rope ladder, but failed a move silently check. When she reached the top, the lone slaver was waiting with drawn sword and an evil glint in his eye. I decided the slaver would not cut the ladder and send Cora plummeting 80 feet to the path below. Instead he tried to knock her loose with his sword. What followed was 20 minutes of comedy as a gnome tried to grapple with the feet of the slaver as he tried to knock her off. I could not roll high enough to hit, but the rogue, so close to level 2 she could taste it, could not get a successful grapple check to dislodge the slaver. Jenso and Clank fired their crossbow and sling respectively, but could not hit the slaver. Cora failed a grapple check, and the reflex save, but since she had an arm wrapped in the rope ladder I determined she slid down about 10 feet and took a little damage for wrenching her arm. Finally, Jenso got two lucky shots off and the slaver fell screaming to the keep below. I awarded the rogue 25XP for pure entertainment value, which the rest of the party heartily supported.

They didn’t quite know what to do with the raven, and eventually just let it be. They opened up the trapdoor in the floor, and Cora produced a lion’s roar with her ghost sound. All six Blood Hawks came screaming out of the trapdoor and set upon the characters. Jenso was sent to -6HP with two successive critical hits. This made the players sit up and take notice. A bitter battle ensued, draining the party of what little magic they had left. In the aftermath, they pulled up the rope ladder, barred the trapdoor and spent the night resting.

At dawn they explored the bird nests, and proceeded down to the bottom level of the tower. I quickly grabbed an Eberron sourcebook and chortled with glee upon reading the damage done to a Warforged by rust. The party lined up and proceeded down the side of the tower along the spiral staircase. I called for spot check, and wouldn’t you know it, both Warforged failed to see the webs. One failed and one accomplished reflex save resulted in the Warforged scared for their lives! There was an uproar from the table over this monster, but after showing an observer (a longtime DM) the stat block, he declared it a fair and just monster, and told them to “shut up and take it like a b!tch” Since everyone was wearing some sort of metal armor, I rolled off and the rust spider went after the Warmage. What ensued was a nail biting combat the cumulated with our favorite half-orc barbarian swinging and killing the monster, but losing his greatsword to rust. He was not a happy camper.

The party found and proceeded through the secret door at the bottom. I was shocked to learn that Jenso actually had mend in his spell list, which allowed them to repair the tapestry and pick up some bonus XP.

By now it was close to 16:00, but they wanted to go back to town and have words with the undertaker. While not exactly as outlined in the module, I decided to have some fun. Picking up their captive slaver from the stable they proceeded back to town. They were met by “Lady Woden” and her guards, actually Ankiel and his goons in disguise. Cora stepped forward, handed over all the evidence they had gathered and was this close to turning over the prisoner and accepting a pat on the back when Jenso started to get suspicious. A quick sense motive check was rolled, Ankiel failed and they fun began. One quick colorspray and half the party was down for the count. Clank held off the goon squad while Charles ran forward to deal with the “Lady”. At this point, there were cries of the watch being involved with slavers. For once the barbarian did not get an instant kill, so with his henchman falling like flies, Ankiel used his scroll of invisibility to make him and his raven disappear. The rest of the goons were dispatched, and Clank and Charles gave chase using the Survival skill to follow Ankiel’s footprints while Tiffen and Jenso watched their dozing comrades and prisoner. I had the barbarian roll 2d6 to my 1d8. He didn’t beat me the first time, so a Survival check picked up the tracks again. A successful pursuit roll had the two PCs following a trial of appearing footprints, with Ankiel maybe 20 feet ahead of them. Two quick attacks failed, so Ankiel turned and blasted them both with another colorspray, dropping them both in the dirt.

Ankiel made good his escape, with all of the evidence they had recovered. The slaver prisoner would give the watch some information, but he didn’t know all the operations. They failed to get the XP bonus for eliminating the slavers, but got about 150 bonus XP otherwise. When all was said and done, everyone made level 2 and they had a pile of loot to sell in town.

Assessment:
Everyone really enjoyed the module. I began to worry that I had overpowered the characters with the high build total, but there were enough close calls that I still think we are doing good. When we hit the second level next week, I might beef up the encounters a bit to keep things interesting, but I don’t want them leveling up too fast. Everyone loved the little certs I made up for the masterwork and magical items. I was worried that I had not made one up for the Bracers +1 that Ankiel had, but since he got away it was a moot point. The players’ map I handed out had them going nuts. They want to go to the Necropolis and the Paupers Graves. I think they will enjoy exploring gthe city as much as the mountain.

We are going to shoot for the first and third week of every month. Next week we will have some shopping fun in the city, during which I might throw in a few role playing elements to keep it interesting and introduce the missing jeweler in the mines. Using a large grid map worked out pretty well, but it is not tall enough to match the module’s map exactly. Between now and next week I am going to see about either adapting the map to fit the mat I have, or else I might split the level at area 12, drawing the mines and such separately from the slave pens. With luck I will have another report next week.

Castle Whiterock session #2
04/05/08 12:00 to 16:20

The Party:
Cora Nightwing – Whisper Gnome Rogue
Clank – Warforged Fighter
Charles D. Tancer – Human Barbarian (undergone race-change operation)
Tiffen – Elf Warmage
Binder – Warforged Artificer
Jenso – Human Cleric
Max Power – Human Fighter

The players started off back in Cillimar. Those that participated last week received a Writ of Authority Cert I made up that gave them some powers of detainment and questioning while in the city. One of the players had written down all the loot and after calculations & dividing up, each player received roughly 360GP to do with what they will. I decided that the Sign of the Silver Armiger and the Sign of the Scimitar and the Shield had 500GP max weapon or armor values for sale. This met with the party’s approval, and with some discussion about temples and other guilds, they went shopping. The Barbarian picked up a new sword and the cleric had everyone donate for a wand of cure light wounds purchased from Hawkers Row. I tried a trick I learned once, and rolled a percentage for how low they heckled down the price (90%), and then rolled a d20 to see how many charges it had. A quick bit of math later and everyone was pleased with the results.

I threw out a couple rumors, of homesteads being ransacked and people gone missing. I also stated that there was a rumor of a jeweler missing. I dropped the hint for the lake monster, and also that “something large was seen shambling through the forest”, which started talk about shambling mounds. This will let me bring in DCC 51.5 in the near future.

The party traveled to Jewelers Circle, where they met the private guards protecting the stores. Cora showed her writ to one of the guards, and asked him about the missing jeweler. They were told that it was not a jeweler, but an assistant, and were sent to the Master of the Jewelers Guild. I described him as a rather tall Gnome, and because I had read the rumor about the Gnome wererats in the sewers, they were immediately suspicious. They learned that the assistant was kidnapped from the housing behind the store, and later his sister disappeared. Upon receiving permission to search the assistant’s room, the party discovered a piece of partially cut quartz in a crack between floorboards. Taking it back to the Master of the Guild, he declared that the workmanship was poor quality, and nothing his assistant would ever have done. I have to say the party was very suspicious of the Master, which I may use to good effect later on.

The party suspected that someone may be trying to make quartz replicas of jewelry to substitute or sell to someone. They then recalled that the slaver they had captured said the slaves were being used to work a mine in the mountain. The party packed up their gear and headed back to the stairs descending to level 2.

Since we now had seven party members, I followed the instructions in the module to increase the difficulty. Cora led the way down the stairs, and promptly missed the first tripwire. Tumbling down to the first room, she found a dozen orcs with weapons at the ready. Before the artificer could find the second tripwire, Max Power decided to take the direct approach and landed next to Cora at the foot of the steps. The rest of the party engaged, and an effective use of Sleep rendered half the orcs out of the fight. That will teach me to bunch them together when laying out figs. They caused enough ruckus to attack the (now full sized) Minotaur. Cora heard him coming and hid behind the door. She failed a reflex save when the Minotaur burst through the door, but only took 1hp of damage. The Minotaur got a few licks in, but Charles and Clank took him down.

Proceeding into the Minotaur’s lair, they used the peephole to spy on the cell area. Only three orcs were patrolling, and when the portcullis went up, the party started to pour into the cellblock. One orc ran into each guardroom to rouse the rest of their comrades, while the third ran for the Trollhound Handler’s quarters. The latter orc took a crossbow bolt, but made it through the door intact. The party worked their way around the cells, being slightly cautious. Charles ran into the upper guardroom, and ran face to face with a half dozed orcs, with weapons at the ready. The battle started to get interesting, as the orcs began to pour out of both guardrooms. Cora managed to spike the door to the Handler’s quarters, and got knocked down to 2hp by a guard for her troubles. She retreated onto the wooden beams overlooking the cells to gain some safety.

With a good deal of luck and several cleaves from the barbarian, the party managed to clear the room. Cora continued to live a charmed life as a crossbow bolt took her to 1hp, but she succeeded on a Balance Check to stay on the beam. The party armed the prisoners with some of their loot and sent them all, except the gnome female, back to the city. I don’t think they wanted to hassle with an escort, but that may come back to haunt them later. Some light healing followed, and the characters (who by this time had only faced low HP monsters, barring the Minotaur) decided to check out the spiked door.

By this time the orc guard and the ranger had gotten the trollhounds all out of their pens and were waiting for the party, hiding behind the corner of the room. When Cora snuck up to look around the corner, one of the trollhounds heard her, and attacked. The rest of the party moved up, but when 16hp of damaged failed to drop the trollhound, they knew they were in for a fight. What proceeded was a desperate battle that saw Charles and Cora fall to negative hp, but they were healed and were able to get out of the way of the fighters. However, Cora’s luck finally ran out, and a trollhound maxed it’s crushing jaw damage and killed her. I would like to point out this is my first PC kill. The rest of the party managed to defeat the monsters, but they were hard pressed. After looting Cora’s body, they spiked the doors and spent two days resting.

Once healed up, they searched the trollhound kennel and then the torture room. In the torture room they found another female gnome tied to the rack. Kara Summertree, a Whisper Gnome Beguiler joined the party in return for rescuing her. The found the secret hallway to the storeroom, but between pushing the crates covering the entrance out of the way, and having to bash the main door open, the wandering orcs and their trollhound were in the hallway waiting for them. Another lucky sleep spell put all but the trollhound asleep. The trollhound did some damage, but was felled, and the orcs were put out of their misery. The party decided to go to one last room, and they opened the door across the hallway. It was a short battle, but Max Power and Binder both fell in the loose scree. Charles ran up and slaughtered the Orc sorcerer in once swipe. The gnome siblings were reunited, and there was general rejoicing.

We decided to stop at this point, due to the lateness of the day.

Conclusion:
While I admit I am still worried about the power of this group, the number of close calls and the fatality show they still are having a fight of it. Everyone enjoyed themselves, even the casualty. I also plan on making initiative cards with some basic information on them for my reference. I accidentally skipped a few people during some combat and I would prefer not to do that again.

Our schedules are going to be strange this month, so I do not know if we will have our second session, but once we do I will be sure to report in.

Good work, enjoying the action, I too am whupping my players through Whiterock, and strangely enough we had a fatality in exactly the same spot as you did, although I've not written up my notes yet for that session. My fears are however that Whiterock is proving particularly difficult for my lot- actually I'm very conservative when it comes to the distribution of experience points.

We've played six full sessions so far and three of the five characters have yet to hit 3rd level, I'm adding in other Goodman Games scenarios to get them to the right level for Whiterock, my players it must be said are loving it. We spent the last session in Cillimar, which I've fleshed out with lots of locations from Monte Cook's Ptolus, I've also designed a system for Fame and Notoriety for my players which helps them with their day-to-day dealings with the good (and bad) folk of Cillimar.

We're playing using RPTools and Skype as we're a little stretched out around the UK, still we seem to have mastered the technology (fingers crossed) and the players have at last got used to using it, at first they would scatter in different directions- chasing the black spaces away from the map to see what lies beneath (Fog of War effect), which usually left them one-on-one with a giant centipede or Monk.

Anyway, keep on scribbling- thanks for sharing.

Cheers Goonalan

Hey!

Glad to see your game is going so well! By the point you've reached in my game, I had something like five to six fatalities amongst the party members. In particular, they had a tough time with the tripwire/orc entry room (I armed all the orcs with glaives, which didn't help the PCs any), and the trollhounds. Those dogs are just nasty critters!

Thankfully my group is working as a more cohesive unit now, and admittedly the one player whose PCs died more than anyone else is no longer in our group.

The initiative cards are a good idea--I do that myself for tracking initiative in game. I used to print out cards for the PCs with their stats handy, but that became too much work for me, and now I just use cards with the names of PCs or monsters.

Your "certificate" idea for magic items and loot is also interesting. I'll have to give something like that further consideration. I suspect, though, knowing my players, that they'll just end up as disposable waste as soon as they figure out each item. I don't see my players as much into collecting nifty pieces of paper, no matter how cool a concept I think it is!

Good show! I look forward to your next game summary. My next game will be this coming Saturday, and I'll be sure to post the results on the boards here in my usual thread.

Castle Whiterock session #3
05/03/08 12:00 to 15:30

The Party:
Clank – Warforged Fighter
Tiffen – Elf Warmage
Binder – Warforged Artificer
Jenso – Human Cleric

Due to several bought of illness, the party was significantly smaller this time around. Since we were just going to finish off level two, I did not think there would be too much of a problem. As it turned out, the party was very balanced and worked quite well.

After freeing the gnomish siblings, the characters proceeded to the Throne room. They quickly instigated combat with the king and his harem. Once again the trollhound did significant damage to the party, until it was ganged up on and killed. The orc chieftain was slain, but not before one of his harem got a critical hit with a knife on Clank. Needless to say he got a lot of harassment the rest of the day. The party found the secret staircase, and will venture down to the next lever on the next session.

Working their way down to the main cavern of the mine, they managed to surprise the orcs there, but failed to keep two of them calling for reinforcements. While the monsters in the room were dispatched, the reinforcements began to work their way up the conveyor belt. The party concentrated on the tunnel leading to the next level, and this allowed the reinforcing orcs the chance to sneak up behind and surprise them. The party dealt with them quickly, and freed the slaves to fend for themselves. I plan on having this cavalier attitude towards freed slaves come back to haunt them at a later date.

Surprisingly, the party failed the search check to find the secret room to the duergar’s office. This is the first time the party has missed a secret door, and since they decided not to use the wand of detect secret doors in their possession, they missed out on some experience and loot.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the mineshafts. The gray ooze managed to engulf Tiffen and reduce him to negative numbers before the party managed to kill it. They disturbed the mefit, but it ran off before they could kill it. Some more exploring led them to the end of the mine cart rails, and they easily finished off the remaining orcs.

Being with a short party, I will admit I fastracked them through the rest of this level. I also found out I was handing out experience incorrectly. They are now all halfway to 4th level, and they themselves found out I was doing it wrong. I am not going to go back and have them change their characters, but progression will be much slower from now on. Oh well, we live and learn.

Our next session is set up for this Saturday. Sorry for the delay in posting, but my new shiny PS3, and the chance to DM at our local convention has had be hitting the books and cruising around the streets of Liberty City in all my spare time. I hope to be more prompt in my next reporting.

Castle Whiterock session #4
04/05/08 12:00 to 16:20

The Party:
Clank – Warforged Fighter
Charles D. Tancer – Human Barbarian
Binder – Warforged Artificer
Jenso – Human Cleric
Max Power – Human Fighter

Once again, we didn’t have the full party, but we still managed to have an effective group of adventurers. The party returned to town to resupply and purchase new arms & armor. The party returned to the Castle, then worked their way down the spiral staircase to level 3. The Artificer is turning into an accomplished rogue in his own right. He detected the traps in the first couple rooms, which allowed the group to explore with impunity.

The party hung a left and barged into the alchemist’s lab. A brief but bitter struggle ensued, and the party managed to wipe out the room’s occupants within a couple rounds. They raided the lab and the storeroom across the hallway, and then proceeded into the caves that the orcs had dug into the mountain.

Some random wandering and encounters later, they emerged at the base of the buried tower. They charged the orc guards, but created such a ruckus their leader heard and levitated up to the top of the room. Dispatching the guards, the party entered without and real searching, until Charles said, I am going to start searching. I figured this was the perfect time for an ambush. As Charles looked up, he got hit with a boulder right in the face. We joked that it might have improved his looks, and then began battle.

The orc shamaness turned out to be a crafty foe. The party had a difficult time hitting her, until the artificer used a scroll to cast levitate on the other Warforged. Clank moved into melee combat, but after one hit the shamaness cast darkness and escaped up through the trapdoor. The party was forced to wait until the darkness cleared before proceeding, and cautiously made their way up the stairs to the second level. Clank was first though the trapdoor, and got a burning ray in his face for his troubles. Battle ensued, and the shamaness managed to drop Jenso with a couple high burning hands rolls. Everyone thought that she had cast enlarge on herself, perhaps permanently. They also speculated she had cast fly, or had it as an ability. A few successful hit later, they felled the shamaness, but unfortunately, she was right above them at the time. After taking a bit of damage for a large dead body falling 20 feet onto them, they were amazed to discover she had no enlargement enchantments on her.

The party then began to make its way up the step, giant sized staircase. After fumbling around for a few minutes, they found a unique way to make it up the steps. Charles had the best climb check, so they tied rope around him, coated his hands with juice from a tanglefoot bag, then had him climb ahead to set pitons and help pull each character up. When they finally reached the top floor, they were shocked to find the damaged giant skeleton. When it reared to life, the party knew they were in for a fight.

The skeleton took several large chunks out of the party, and took Binder to negative HP. An unsuccessful turning attempt was met with good-natured ribbing, but they managed to finally bring the beast down.

Clearing out the tower, they proceeded to explore the rest of the caverns, with Binder walking into the slimy area and having it drop onto his head. The party lit torches to burn it off, but not before he took some damage.

They found the block cavern, and pushing the stone out of the way met the water nix. They were more than happy to kill the giant crayfish, dispatching it with ease once we all boned up on our underwater fighting. This turned out to be a good test for how I will handle level 5. Being experienced D&D players, they immediately guessed the nature of the ring they received in payment. Given that no one is lawful good, the Artificer tricked the ring into believing he was lawful good, and I told them the activation of the ring would come later. This will be determinate on if they find the hidden library.

Returning to the finished hallways, the party burst into the hobgoblins’ barracks, killing two and capturing the third. They left the survivor tied up, but did not search the room. I think the bugbear is going to undo his bindings and steal the chest, vowing vengeance at a later date.

They finished off the day by going into the old temple and defeating the attackers there. They managed a very high search roll, and now there is talk of finding the Clockwork Academy and seeing what is in there. We stopped on account of heavy storms in the area, and I had to scram to get ready for a party.

In all we had a real good play session. We are meeting again in two weeks, at which time I will finish up level 3 and move them on to level 4.